Like Christianity, Islam is often very much the property of those who practice it. My son has many Muslim friends and classmates and their families range from women in hijab (fairly mild forms of it, admittedly) to women in stylish, rather sexy Western styles. His best friend's family are Ismailis and the father is Dutch convert and the mother is of Pakistani origin and is a Muslim feminist. No hijab there, but quite devout in their way. They packed the whole family out to Vancouver one time to hear the Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Ismailis, speak. They send the kids to classes to learn to read the Qu'ran in Arabic and to learn about their faith. But they are hardly raving Islamist terrorists in burkas trying to undermine Western society. Indeed, they would likely be seen as apostate Westernised intellectuals by said Islamists.

One thing that often gets lost in Western discussions of Islam is that it is not a monolithic religion. Beyond the basic Sunni-Shiite divide, there are myriad subsects in both groups that range as widely in their approach to the core elements of the faith (the Qu'ran, the Five Pillars, belief in God, angels, and prophets, and so on) as Christian sects do.

Mendalla

We, the Christian West, are a largely literalist or absolutist culture, conceptualizing our reality in absolutes. Traditional Mid-Eastern Islamic cutlure, on the other hand, has a more literary tradition.

Using metaphorical or "flowery" language was very much in vogue during the Golden Age of Islamic culture, which was marked by an extraordinary degree of creativeness and inventiveness. The Prophet Mohammed—whose name be praised—instructed his followers to teach by way of analogy. The Koran is written in saji (a rythmical prose poem style) and is meant to be taken metaphorically. Alas, Islamic fundamentalists make the same mistake as Christian fundamentalists: they take their Holy Book literally. What's worse, they consider only one of a large number of possible interpretations to be absolutely true, thereby cutting themselves off from the limitless wealth their Holy Book has to offer.

Ancient Hebraic culture has a similar tradition of teaching by way of metaphor. Metaphorical expression (midrash) was the spirt in which the ancient Hebraic scriptures were written, and is the spirt in which they ought to be taken.

By and large, "primitive" cultures all over the world expressed their sacred truths by way of metaphor.

Hi Inanna:

Regarding "ladlemen," did you know that the German word for "ladle" is "Schöpfer," and that "Schöpfer" is also the German word for "creator."

We ladlemen are creators, eh?—passionate creators.